Spurs’ Leonard takes time to watch

NEW ORLEANS — Spurs rookie Kawhi Leonard exited Monday’s 104-102 victory over the Hornets with 4:50 left in the first quarter. He did not return until it was time to defend New Orleans’ last-ditch possession with 1.4 seconds to play.

If Gregg Popovich benched his prized rookie in order to send a message, he wasn’t saying.

“Not necessarily,” Popovich said.

The Spurs opened the second half with Gary Neal in Leonard’s spot, and rotated Danny Green and James Anderson at the position throughout the night.

“I just wanted to give Gary a chance to start (the second half),” Popovich said, “See if we could generate some offense.”

Neal finished with 10 points, cracking double figures for the second consecutive game. For the second game in a row, he also made more than half his shots (4 of 7).

Before the game, Popovich compared and contrasted the 20-year-old Leonard with Bruce Bowen, the eight-time All-Defensive team honoree who in March will become the seventh Spurs player to have his number retired.

“Over time, we’ll find out if he has Bruce’s discipline and dedication to learn how to be great at that position,” Popovich said.

Leonard said he was unbothered by being limited to a season low 7 minutes, 11 seconds of court time.

“I guess they didn’t need me,” he said.

Irreplaceable Bruce: Tim Duncan was delighted to learn Bowen would have his No. 12 jersey retired to the AT&T Center rafters. Asked how irreplaceable the defensive-minded small forward was to Spurs championship runs in 2003, 2005 and 2007, Duncan chuckled.

“We’ve been trying to replace him ever since,” said Duncan, Bowen’s teammate for eight seasons. “It sounds pretty easy to do, but it’s not an easy job. He played the role perfectly for us.”

Los Spurs en español: For the first time in franchise history, the Spurs will provide a Spanish-language telecast of a handful of upcoming games.

A total of 12 games will be broadcast in Spanish beginning with Wednesday’s contest against Atlanta. The broadcasts will be produced by Fox Sports Networks and available on Time Warner Cable channel 50 in San Antonio.

Paul Castro, the Spurs’ Spanish-language radio broadcaster on KCOR, will handle the play-by-play calls.

Lessons From Pop: Hornets coach Monty Williams was in his third NBA season in 1996-97 when he played for a Spurs team that finished 20-62.

Now in the midst of a similar losing season in New Orleans, Williams finds himself leaning on lessons he learned from Popovich, who took over for Bob Hill 18 games into the 1996-97 campaign.

“The one thing was just watching how he stayed the course,” Williams said. “He had a plan in place. He developed his young guys. It was big for me, because it gave me a chance to play a lot of minutes.”

Williams averaged nine points a game that season. That following summer, the Spurs won the draft lottery, giving them the right to draft Duncan.